# Marin Barleti's Histories (1504)

URL: https://allhistories.com/albania/timeline/1504-marin-barleti-s-histories
Location: Shkodër
Themes: Key Events

Marin Barleti was a Catholic priest and humanist from Shkodër who lived through the Ottoman siege of the town in 1478–1479 and then emigrated to Italy, like many Albanians of his generation. Writing in Latin, he set out to record the Albanian struggle against the Ottomans for a European audience. His first work, The Siege of Shkodra (De obsidione Scodrensi), was published in Venice in 1504 and is an eyewitness account of the siege, which has earned Barleti the title of the first Albanian historian. His second and larger work, The History of the Life and Deeds of Scanderbeg, Prince of the Epirotes (Historia de vita et gestis Scanderbegi Epirotarum principis), was published in Rome between 1508 and 1510. It presented Skanderbeg as a heroic Christian prince, using long speeches and dramatic scenes in the classical style. The biography was translated into many European languages from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries and spread Skanderbeg's fame across Europe, inspiring later literature, music and art. Modern historians treat it with caution, since Barleti invented some speeches and correspondence, but it remains a key source and a foundation of Albanian national memory.

## Why it matters
Barleti's works made Skanderbeg famous throughout Europe and laid the foundations of Albanian historical writing.

Ruler at the Time: [Bayezid II](https://allhistories.com/albania/rulers/bayezid-ii)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Marin Barleti](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marin_Barleti)
- [Wikipedia — Ottoman Albania (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ottoman_Albania)